Oil politics and development : an analysis of the impact on agriculture in one OPEC nation - Nigeria

The most recurrent excuse that many developing nations give for not modernizing up to their potentials is "we do not have the funds or resources to develop." While this excuse may be genuine in many instances, the question here is: why are some OPEC countries like Nigeria, Gabon, Iran, Venezuela, and other oil exporting countries, e.g., Mexico, not developing as rapidly as they ought to? Judging from the amount of revenues they receive from oil each year, one would clearly expect them to be automatically excluded from the list of nations that use the above excuse.as a justification for their present state of underdevelopment. But this is hardly the case. They suffer from, essentially, two types of problems: (1) the management of surplus resources and oil revenues rather than the scarcity that they are used to; and (2) the privatizing of these revenues rather than utilizing them for development. [...]